How would you give back if you had $80 billion -- plus or minus a few billion?

"This tweet is a request for ideas," he wrote on Thursday. "I'm thinking of a philanthropy strategy that is the opposite of how I mostly spend my time -- working on the long term."

The request comes as Bezos is on the cusp of overtakingMicrosoft(MSFT) founder Bill Gates to become the world's richest person. Over the years, Gates and his wife have built up a massive philanthropic foundation to help eradicate diseases, boost education and more.

Bezos, on the other hand, has been more focused on what he describes in the tweet as "long term" investments that "are contributing to society and civilization in their own ways."

These include his efforts at Amazon as well using his considerable personal resources to buy The Washington Post and fund his own space company called Blue Origin.